LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
March 5, 2004 |
VOL. 20, NO. 13 |
LSU is working to improve “the first-year experience” for its students, finding new ways to enhance the educational process that include LSU’s first-ever summer reading program for incoming freshmen.
LSU has identified “the first-year experience” as a key component of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan, or QEP. The QEP is one of the documents required by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to reaffirm LSU’s accreditation. The university’s accreditation must be reaffirmed every 10 years by the Commission on Colleges, which will make a determination on LSU’s standing in December 2004.
LSU is one of 30 institutions in an expanded pilot group within the Southern region of the United States that will use the new Principles of Accreditation approved by the commission in December 2001. LSU is preparing both a Compliance Certification and a Quality Enhancement Plan to provide to the commission. These two documents are part of those new principles and replace the voluminous “self-study” that universities were required to submit to SACS in previous years. The new principles also include a peer review process that will include both an off-site review and an on-site review by commission representatives.
The QEP is also intended to help satisfy the Flagship Agenda, particularly objectives two and three of the Flagship Agenda, which are, respectively, to increase the number, quality and competitiveness of graduate students, graduate faculty and graduate programs; and to increase the quality of undergraduate students and programs.
Last semester, Chancellor Mark Emmert and Provost Risa Palm started both an undergraduate education and a graduate education Flagship Study Group that are working to devise new strategies for teaching and learning that would serve as the basis for the QEP. The study groups are composed of faculty who were serving on or chairing key Faculty Senate committees, some faculty who are serving as graduate coordinators and some of those sitting on the LSU Reaffirmation of Accreditation Leadership Team. Professional staff who work with students and faculty in learning initiatives are also represented in the study groups, as well as representative from Student Government.
Teresa Summers, director of the Office of Accreditation and Institutional Effectiveness, and English Professor Sarah Liggett co-chaired the undergraduate education study group. Pam Monroe, associate dean of the Graduate School, and Summers co-chaired the graduate education study group.
The undergraduate education study group has set four goals to improve undergraduate education at LSU: Define what an undergraduate will know and be able to do upon graduation; determine multiple pathways for students to achieve these learning outcomes; give greater attention to how students learn and adapt instruction accordingly; and use more creative ways to assess student learning and programs. These goals should help satisfy the Flagship Agenda’s objective for undergraduate education.
The graduate education study group has also set four interrelated goals to improve graduate education at LSU: Pursue quality in programs and students; expand the graduate faculty; support and increase library resources; and remove bureaucracy barriers. These goals should help satisfy the Flagship Agenda’s objective for graduate education.
However, both groups acknowledged the importance of “the first-year experience” and identified it as a place to begin improving education at LSU.
The groups are now hoping to involve more members of the LSU community in the process. They welcome input from faculty, staff, students and alumni as they try to create time lines and specific strategies for achieving their goals.
The summer reading program is the first of many such strategies. Beginning this fall, every entering freshman will be required to read “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal” by Eric Schlosser before the first day of class. The non-fiction book reads like a narrative, Summers said, and tracks the growth of the fast-food industry after World War II, examining the industry’s involvement in issues such as obesity, American global impact and environmental damage.
When freshmen arrive on campus in fall 2004, they will be required to participate in discussion groups about the book, led by faculty members who volunteer to read the book and take part in the program. Summers said that student organizations like the LSU Ambassadors and residential assistants in campus housing will be encouraged to read the book and be available to discuss it with freshmen. And professors could discuss the book in their freshman-level classes in various subjects. In addition, university officials are hoping to bring the book’s author to campus to speak to students at convocation, which is held the day before classes begin.
“We hope the book will be woven into the first-year curriculum,” Summers said. “We want it to be an integral part of a freshman’s first year at LSU, and we think the multi-disciplinary approach will effectively engage students.”
Summers said the university will set up a Web site about the book, with suggested questions for students to consider as they read.
The Chancellor’s Office will underwrite part of the cost of the program, including some portion of the book itself, so that students can obtain the book at a discounted rate. Incoming freshmen will receive their books at spring testing and summer orientation.
Summers said a Summer Reading Program Committee, co-chaired by Liggett and Summers, spent the Christmas break reading numerous best-sellers to find a book that would be multi-disciplinary and research-based, but would still be of interest to freshman-level students. The committee would like the freshmen who read “Fast Food Nation” to help select next year’s book for the incoming class. The summer reading program is a simple idea, but one that should show the LSU community that things are changing at the university, Summers said.
“It’s a small change, but one that shows the world that LSU is committed to making changes that will enhance the educational experience for its students,” Summers said of the program.
Other aspects of “the first-year experience” could include more courses involving service learning, in which students perform community-service that extends and enriches what they are learning in the classroom; the residential college program, in which students with similar interests live in the same residence halls and take the same classes together, thereby giving them the feeling of attending a small college while also benefitting from the opportunities only available at a large university; and more learning communities, in which students take two or more classes from different disciplines that deal with various aspects of the same subject. Learning communities are designed to deepen students’ understanding of a particular topic.
All of these programs already exist within the university, but Summers said the QEP could help to expand these programs to accommodate more students. She also said the QEP will likely move the process forward because it could provide resources to improve the programs and because SACSCOC will follow up to make sure LSU has carried out its plans.
“We’re not just doing this for SACSCOC,” Summers said. “What LSU is trying to be is already outlined in the Flagship Agenda. The QEP is a tool that will help us achieve that agenda.”
A working draft of the QEP is online at http://www.lsu.edu/sacscoc and Summers said she hopes faculty members from all areas of campus will read the document and offer their input.
“This is not just a feel-good activity,” she said. “The QEP is an important document that will allow us to project where we want and need to go. It must show how we are improving student learning, and that affects every faculty member. That’s why faculty input is so crucial.”
LSU will be hosting the SACSCOC on-site review team April 27-29. The team’s primary purpose in visiting is to assist LSU in improving its QEP and to follow up on the recommendations from the off-site review of LSU’s Compliance Certification, which was conducted last fall.
For more information on the QEP and LSU’s reaffirmation process, contact Summers at 225-578-7697 or at tsummer@lsu.edu. For more information on the summer reading program or to volunteer to lead a discussion group on “Fast Food Nation,” contact Summers at the above contact information or Sarah Liggett at enligg@lsu.edu.
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| Center for Computation & Technology Director Ed Seidel explains his research across the access grid, which allows for video conferencing with the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany. |
The LSU Center for Computation and Technology, formerly known as LSU CAPITAL, has announced an official partnership with the Albert Einstein Institute, the world’s leading center for gravitational physics, in Berlin, Germany.
The two institutions have much in common regarding research in numerical relativity, the study of Einstein’s equations. Ed Seidel, the director of LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology (CCT) worked as head of the numerical relativity group at the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) in Berlin, and continues to hold a part time appointment there. “There are many joint projects between LSU and AEI, and great computational resources at both sites,” said Seidel.
The Albert Einstein Institute and LSU’s CCT have been working to create a high bandwidth connection, or "grid" between the two sites, so that scientists at LSU and at the AEI will be able to use the computational resources of either site. Physics research at either institution can be generated more efficiently by combining the computing power of such machines across continents.
“Not only do we need to share information and resources for our research projects, but setting up a grid between sites that cooperate so closely provides a unique laboratory for developing and testing collaborative grid software infrastructures,” said Seidel.
The two centers are both currently in the process of upgrading their computing resources.
The AEI is upgrading their “PEYOTE” cluster from 128 to 256 Intel processors. LSU is currently upgrading its 1024 processor supercomputer, “SuperMike” to Intel® Xeon™ processors at 3Ghz.
Solving Einstein’s equations and other research in gravitational physics requires the power of high performance computing. Supercomputers consisting of interconnected clusters of traditional computers are used to solve complex science questions, and even create three-dimensional visualizations.
Ed Seidel’s research group has created colorful visualizations that model the gravitational waves resulting from the collision of black holes. This type of simulation is just one way that supercomputing power can help researchers to better understand astronomy, or any other science.
Tom Goodale, a research associate at LSU commented on SuperMike’s new hardware, “These Intel processors will be almost twice as fast as the old ones, so we will be able to cut the time necessary for simulations, and increase the throughput for scientists.” Goodale uses the machine for research in computational science, high performance computing and grid computing.
LSU researchers hope that the working relationship between the institutions will help to bring advancements to science and to LSU’s mission as a university. “We need this for our projects and for our research on the methods to enhance collaborations,” said Seidel.
“Intel is proud to work with thought leaders such as LSU and the Albert Einstein Institute to provide world-class high-performance computing solutions based on Intel processor technology for the advancement of the technology and the state of the human understanding of the world around them,” said Jason Waxman, director, HPC Platforms Marketing, Intel Corporation. “The connection of the LSU and AEI HPC clusters into a grid highlights another example of the growing trend toward the teaming of computational resources toward faster results and better scientific discovery.”
The Center for Computation and Technology at LSU was set up to generate a culture of learning, innovation and entrepreneurship at LSU through interdisciplinary information technology projects. The driving force behind this center is to use information technology to help achieve the economic development goals of the Louisiana legislature’s Information Technology Initiative, and to facilitate movement towards National Flagship status for LSU. The contributions to education, research and economic development are a starting point in LSU’s goal to help make Louisiana one of the best places in the country to work, live, visit and do business.
At the last LSU Board of Supervisors meeting on Friday, Feb. 21, the board approved a 7-year, $2.3 million contract to make Coach Nick Saban the highest paid coach in the nation.
Under the terms of the contract, Saban will be paid $2.3 million in 2004, which includes $400,000 in salary, $1.45 million for radio and television programs, $300,000 by the Tiger Athletic Foundation and $150,000 from the school’s official shoe and equipment provider.
Saban can earn more if he qualifies for a range of incentives, such as winning the national championship or getting football team members in the top 6 of SEC “graduation rate” ranks. Should the team appear in a post-season bowl game, Saban can earn from 75,000 up to $175,000 depending if the team wins the SEC or the BCS National Championship. He also shall receive a merit increase of $25,000 as long as the graduation rate remains in the top six. If the graduation rate is raised to the top two, Saban will receive an additional merit increase of $25,000.
During the meeting LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman and Chancellor Mark Emmert touted Saban’s accomplishments during the past year.
“Coach Saban was the best in the United States for what he did for one full year,” Bertman said.
Saban is 39-13 in four seasons at LSU, including two SEC championships and three bowl wins.
According to Emmert, more than one third of the football team made the dean’s list in the fall of 2003.
“Four years ago, 47 members of the football team had grade-point averages below 2.0. Last fall, only three players fell below this GPA,” Emmert said. “We have a very different football program than we did just a few short years ago.”
Saban addressed the board today expressing his gratitude to the LSU System, Chancellor Mark Emmert and Athletic Director Skip Bertman. He said that he and his family are very happy and appreciative for what the university has done, and he is pleased that he will be able to remain head coach of the LSU Tigers.
In other business, the Board approved the following measures:
• The naming of the River Model Building at LSU, the “Vincent A. Forte River and Coastal Engineering Research Laboratory.”
• The naming of the Serenity Garden at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine the “Milton J. Womack Serenity Garden.”
• The architectural plans for construction of the Residential College One on the location of the current Graham Hall.
• To waive the tuition associated with the Paul M. Hebert Law Center’s third year one-hour Trial Advocacy Course for any student who is enrolled during the 2003 or subsequent fall semester as full-time, third-year law student at another ABA- accredited law school.
• A recommendation to place usage fees collected by the Campbell Auditorium into a restricted current funds account for the sole purpose of operating and maintaining the Campbell Auditorium.
• A recommendation to place all funds collected by the soon to be completed LSU Child Care Center into a restricted current funds account for the sole purpose of operating and maintaining the LSU Child Care Center.
• The establishment of the Curry Family Professorship at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center
• The establishment of the Roy O. Martin Sr. Professorship in Composite and Engineered Wood Products in the School of Renewable Resources in the LSU Agricultural Center.
• The establishment of the Everett D. Besch Professorship in the School of Veterinary Medicine at LSU.
• The establishment of the William K. “Bill” Carville Professorship of Communication and Political Empowerment at LSU.
The photographs, some 30 years worth, help tell the story of a woman – an artist – who has had the rare distinction of being honored several times for her life’s work before it’s even reached its completion.
There she sits at her desk, brush in one hand, subject in the other. In another picture, she is posing with colleagues and friends. Still another finds her slogging away through the marsh, despite the fact that she is, by this time, in her “golden years.”
One thing is constant though – she is always smiling. Even when she’s not, she appears to be smiling inwardly at something no one else can see or hear.
And therein lies the essence of Margaret Stones, one of the world’s foremost botanical artists on par with the likes of John James Audubon. Those who know her well give credence to the quality of her lengthy body of work, yet their first words are more often directed at the quality of her personage.
She is meticulous in her work, adventurous in spirit, gregarious among others and a self-professed “lounge lizard.” She only works from live specimens and insists that her works be referred to as “watercolor drawings” and not “paintings.” She also has her own genus name, Stonessya depictans var. minutissima – a play on her ability to accurately draw the most minute item.
“I think botanical artists should be able to steer an even course between art and science, or a literal interpretation,” Stones said in a 1992 interview. “An exact interpretation can be very deadly ... and an artsy thing can be a very silly thing. I approach it in terms of design ... I am an artist at heart.”
Her relationship with LSU goes back to 1976, beginning with a six-drawing commission of botanical illustrations intended to help the university celebrate the Bicentennial and LSU’s 50th anniversary at its present site. Out of that relatively small endeavor came an even greater one – a 200-drawing commission to be completed over the next 10 years.
Stones joked at the time, saying, “Well, I’m 54 now ... I can make no promises that I’ll finish this project.”
Now, at the age of 83, Stones will return to LSU for possibly the final time and be celebrated for her work with a special exhibit, “Science in the Art of Margaret Stones.”
The exhibit, which features Stones’s extensive collection of watercolor drawings of the native flora of Louisiana, will be on display at LSU’s Hill Memorial Library from Feb. 25 through April 10.
Her roots
She was born Elsie Margaret Stones, the third daughter of Frederick and Agnes Stones, in Colac, near Victoria, Australia. Because of the Depression, her family moved around frequently, though not always together. In spite of the circumstances, Stones’s parents encouraged her artistic interests and, around the age of seven, she attended Swinburne Girls’ Junior Technical School where she obtained a three-year scholarship to study industrial art at Swinburne Technical College.
When she enrolled there at the age of 15, she listed her occupation in a single word – artist. For the next several years, she worked and studied more, taking night classes at the National Gallery Art School. But just as she was becoming deeply involved with her art, World War II intervened. In 1942, she began nursing at Epworth Hospital in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
After her final nursing exams in late 1945, she contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and was hospitalized. For 18 months she was confined to her bed. Boredom soon set in and Stones took to drawing the wildflowers that friends had brought by. Her works caught the eye of her physician, Dr. Clive Fitts, who alerted his friend Daryl Lindsay, director of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Thanks to Lindsay, her work came to the attention of Robert Haines of the Georges Gallery in Melbourne. Haines offered Stones her first exhibition, which consisted of 55 drawings and opened to critical success.
Fitts also introduced Stones to John Stewart Turner, a professor of botany and plant physiology at the University of Melbourne. Turner invited her to his first-year lectures and practical demonstrations, beginning her journey into the serious study of botany and its historical development.
Branching out
After four exhibitions in four years, Stones arrived in London in early April 1951, determined to further her knowledge of botany and gain experience at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew – the promised land for botanical artists.
She soon found a house close to the gardens and began freelancing there by working on R.W. Keay’s revision of “Flora of West Tropical Africa.” Then came Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, a journal closely associated with Kew Gardens. By 1958, she was the magazine’s principal contributing artist and by 1983, when she completed her last drawing for the publication, she had produced more than 400 watercolor drawings.
In 1961, she received a private commission for a group of 35 drawings of Tasmanian plants.
Milo John Reginald Talbot, the seventh Baron Talbot of Malahide in Ireland, had come into the possession of an estate in Fingal in the northeast of Tasmania. He had developed an interest in gardening and tried to grow Tasmanian species of plants in Ireland but found it too difficult. Daunted but not defeated, he decided to collect plant portraits.
Talbot brought together Stones and Winifred Curtis, the eminent botanist of the day. What resulted was “The Endemic Flora of Tasmania,” a six-volume collection and one of the foremost botanical publications of the 20th century.
Almost all of Stones’s 254 drawings were done at her home in Kew where she received the living material air-freighted to her from Tasmania. Talbot and Curtis organized the plant-collecting expeditions and Curtis examined the specimens before packing them in Tupperware containers and sending them by air to Melbourne, where they would then be put on a plane to London.
It was a heady project to say the least, yet Stones had only just begun.
Bewitched by the Bayou
The experience of Stones’s initial six drawings for LSU’s 50th anniversary had gone so well, that university administrators and others associated with the project quickly sought to expand the commission by having Stones do another 300 drawings over the next 10 years. She politely declined.
A new proposal of 200 paintings over 10 years was proffered and Stones accepted, having not even finished her work on “The Endemic Flora of Tasmania.” There was one problem, however. In her work on the Tasmania project and her initial work with LSU, Stones had done all of her work from her home in Kew. But many of the plants she would require for this new commission were not available at Kew and couldn’t be air-expressed because they were too vulnerable to moisture loss.
Consequently, Stones came to LSU to work in the spring of 1977 after having just received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Silver Veitch Memorial Medal. She settled into the two-room Chancellor’s Suite at the LSU Faculty Club for a three-month stay and began the process of immortalizing the state’s 200 most interesting native plants. In addition to her art supplies, she added scientific instruments borrowed from the university, including a binocular microscope.
Collectors would bring specimens during the afternoons or early evenings, and Stones would place them in her bathtub with a plastic bag over them and the curtain drawn. This protected them from the trauma of being clipped or uprooted.
When she was ready to paint, she would hold the plant and turn it several ways, examining it for the angle that would produce the most attractive depiction.
“Plants, like humans, are not always well-designed, so the artist needs to turn the specimen around until a natural and typical aspect is seen to advantage,” Stones said. “In other words, it’s like painting someone’s portrait ... you wouldn’t paint them on the side where all the warts are.”
Once she was finished, she would sign her name in a microscopic, pencilled caterpillar along a branch and add the botanical name of genus and species, the name of the collector, the collecting site and details of magnification.
In late 1986, the project was nearing completion and the university support committee assigned to the project wanted it to continue. They approached Stones about staying and working on a year to year basis. She gladly accepted, and in time, she would add more than 30 drawings to the collection.
“Margaret loved Louisiana right away,” recalled Gresdna Doty, Professor Emeritus of Theater at LSU. “She liked the people, she liked the flora and she liked going out exploring all parts of the state.”
In a 1991 interview, Stones recalled boating with friends near Manchac, looking for lotuses that were said to be in abundance there. Finally, they spotted one lone plant. When she reached out to grab it, she found it to be floating between two alligator cadavers. On another occasion, she dropped her glasses over the side of the boat. As she instinctively reached for them, she found herself looking into the eyes of a very large alligator – a very alive alligator.
“I discovered I really didn’t need those glasses as badly as I thought I did,” Stones said.
In 1989, Stones’s agent at the time, Shauna Fitzgerald, suggested bringing the work back to England for an exhibit.
Through the combined efforts of LSU, the Royal Botanic Garden, the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University and Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, the “Native Flora of Louisiana” exhibit traveled to Great Britain in 1991. There, 90 drawings from the project were exhibited at Cambridge, Oxford and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland.
During the past 13 years, Stones has made several trips to Louisiana – LSU in particular. Yet this year’s trip is probably the most special because it may be the last. It will also be a tribute to her body of work and the artist – the woman – that she is.
Perhaps the best tribute though, is an exchange that took place years ago between Stones and former LSU Press Director, Les Phillabaum.
As the two walked through the Cambridge exhibit, Phillabaum said to Stones, “It just amazes me how you do this ... it is beyond my ken that anyone could put a brush to paper and come out with what you do.”
True to her nature, Stones quickly replied, “You know, sometimes I wonder how I do it, too.”
Over a period of 15 years, botanical artist Margaret Stones worked to create the “Native Flora of Louisiana” collection – now part of the LSU Libraries’ McIlhenny Collection. Her watercolor drawings portray more than 200 species of plants, ranging from the classic Live Oak with Spanish Moss to the rare and delicate Yellow Fringeless Orchid.
While her drawings are treasured for their beauty, for the botanist, their value lies in their scientific accuracy. It is this aspect that the exhibit, “Science in the Art of Margaret Stones,” will explore.
The exhibit will be on display from Feb. 25 through April 10, at the LSU Hill Memorial Library. It is free and open to the public.
As part of LSU Galleries, Exhibitions and Museum Sites Day, the exhibition will be open on Sunday, March 21, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Stones will be on hand that day to visit with exhibition viewers from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and copies of “Flora of Louisiana,” published by the LSU Press, will be on sale throughout the afternoon.
The exhibition presents a selection of 31 finished watercolor drawings by Stones from the “Native Flora of Louisiana” collection. Eight are accompanied by working drawings. Additional materials from the E.A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection provided context for Stones’s work as a botanical artist and an overview of her distinguished career.
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| The 10th annual Ione E. Burden Symposium, “Traveling Through Time: The History of Transportation in Louisiana,” will be held Saturday, March 13, at the LSU Rural Life Museum. |
The 10th annual Ione E. Burden Symposium, “Traveling Through Time: The History of Transportation in Louisiana,” will be held Saturday, March 13, at the LSU Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge. Speakers will make presentations on how transportation influenced communities in Louisiana.
William J. Cooper Jr., Boyd Professor of history at LSU, will begin the day with an overview of the day’s topic. Faye Phillips, associate dean of LSU Libraries Special Collections will present “From the Great Race to the Great White Fleet: Traffic on the Mississippi River,” and Elizabeth K. Dart, co-founder of the West Feliciana Historical Society, will discuss the history of the first railroads in her lecture titled “Working on the Railroad: the Building of the West Feliciana Railroad, 1828-1842.”
Merri Ferrell, former curator of the Carriage Collection of the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages, will present two lectures. The first, “Hooves and Wheels: Nineteenth Century American Carriages,” will feature information about wheeled transportation, incorporating the Rural Life Museum’s local collection in her presentation. “Keep them Rolling, Preservation of Horse-Drawn Vehicles,” will detail her preservation efforts.
New Orleans native James Guilbeau will speak about the oldest operating street railroad in the world, in “St. Charles Streetcar: the History of the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad.”
The symposium will end with a lecture by Nicholas Neylon, director of the Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum, titled “Daredevils in the Sky: Early Louisiana Aviators.”
A $40 registration fee includes the lectures, a Louisiana-style lunch and a “Meet the Speakers” book signing. Seating is limited. Advance registration is required. Receipt of check secures reservation. For more information, call 225/765-2437 or e-mail rulife1@lsu.edu.
To learn more about the Rural Life Museum and its interpretive programs visit www.rurallife.lsu.edu.